Research help

Laura Reiner
Reference Librarian
Goldfarb Library
(781) 736-4689
reiner@brandeis.edu

Contents

• Get library help
• Research guides
• Background information
• Spanish dictionaries
• Find books
• Find articles
• Spanish language journals
• Key web sites
• Cite your sources

Get research help

Library & Technology Services homepage

Reference librarians in Goldfarb Library are available Monday-Friday 10-5 and Tues/Thurs 6-9; Sundays noon-5.
Or you can email me any time and make an appointment or just ask a question.

Research help by phone, email or live online 24/7 service

Brandeis research guides - more help in greater detail

• Latin American Studies
• Spanish & Latin American Literature
• more research guides... many subjects

Find background information

Selected history & culture reference works

Art and music reference - a sampling

Spanish dictionaries

• The Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary (English-Spanish)
• The Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary (Spanish-English)
• Iberian Language & Literature Web - online Spanish dictionaries & more
  
• Tesauro de SIGNUM - finds synonyms & antonyms in Spanish - may need to register
  
• Diccionarios - La Página del Idioma Español
  
• For Spanish dictionaries in print, see: Main Reference PC2625
  
• For Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionaries in print, see: Main Reference PC4640

Find books in LOUIS catalog

Tips:

• combine keywords to find literary works from a particular country:
  examples: chile poetry, puerto rico plays, mexico novels
  
  
• use synonyms in Advanced Search to increase your chances of finding good material
  example: for Latin American art
  art or painting or sculpture (in the first search box)
  AND latin america or south america or central america (in the second search box)
  
  
• use an author's name as a subject search to find books about her writing
  example: allende, isabel
  
  
• or, try a keywords in subject search in Advanced Search, combining your subject's name and "criticism and interpretation" to find literary, art, or film criticism about a work or an author
  
  
• if you're not sure how to find something, use a keyword search in Basic Search, find one good book on your topic, then follow the linked Subject terms in the full record of that book to find more books on the same topic
  example: (keywords) latin american boom > (subject) "Latin American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism."
  
  
• TO FIND BOOKS WE DON'T OWN, search WorldCat. Click on the title to see the full record, then click on Get It! to request the book through Interlibrary Loan.
• Or, get a BLC card at the front desk of the library and borrow books directly from any of 18 neighboring universities.

Find articles in databases

• tip: click on the button to get from the citation to the full text of the article - more info
  
  

Indexes - citations to articles - click on Get It! to find the full text

• Historical Abstracts
  indexes scholarly journals & books in history of all countries except the US. Can search by time period.
  
• HAPI (Hispanic American Periodicals Index)
  indexes scholarly journals (in Spanish or English) on Latin America & Latinos in the U.S.
  
• Art Abstracts
  Indexes journals, exhibition catalogs, book and film reviews in more than 250 key international, mostly English-language journals in the visual arts, 1984 to present
  
• HLAS (Handbook of Latin American Studies) - Library of Congress
  Annotated bibliography of scholarly works on Latin America (including U.S. Latinos) in the humanities and social sciences. Searchable in English or Spanish.
  

Full-text databases

• Academic Search Premier
  - multidisciplinary database - a little bit on a wide array of topics, from both popular and scholarly journals.
  - tip: you may want to limit to "scholarly (peer reviewed) journals"
  
• JSTOR
  - an archive of the complete back issues of leading scholarly journals in different disciplines (up to 5 years ago)
  - use Advanced Search and be sure to search journals by scholarly discipline, such as History and Latin American Studies
  
• Expanded Academic ASAP
  multidisciplinary database - a little bit on a wide array of topics, from both popular and scholarly journals.
  

Key Web sites

• Voice of the Shuttle: Web Page for Humanities Research
• Iberian Studies Web
• Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC)- Yahoo-like. Search in Spanish or English
• Andanzas al Web Latino- a meta-site on Latino culture, politics, and more
• Online Resources for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
  

Citing your sources

• Citing your sources - online examples from the 4 major style guides
  
  
• The Writer's Reference Guide to Spanish
  location: Main Library Reference PC 4410 .F68 1999
  Spanish style guide. Punctuation, spelling, grammar.
  Includes a chapter on citing works in Spanish.